C'est un arbuste dépourvu de feuilles et de fleurs.
Ni pierre ni jade. Qui nous l'a envoyé ?
Mais qui t'a donné ce cœur insensible, my bien-aimée ?

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, page 91.

Text Authorship:

• by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Le corail", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

• a text in Chinese (中文) by Tsao Chang Ling (1719 - 1763) [text unavailable]
  • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

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The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Louis Delune (1876 - 1940), "Ngo gay ngy", 1922, published 1924 [ medium voice, piano, flute ad libitum ], from Le Collier des offrandes, six poèmes lyriques d'après des poésies chinoises, no. 6, Paris, Éditions Hérelle, Fortemps, & Cie
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Coral", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-15
Line count: 3
Word count: 26